Instead of using the SmartAssembly user interface to build your project, you can use the command line. This is useful if you want to apply a setting to multiple assemblies, or to make a change to existing settings during your build process, for example.

The console application SmartAssembly.com is stored in the same folder as SmartAssembly.exe. This is usually in %ProgramFiles%\Red Gate\SmartAssembly.

To run SmartAssembly from the command line, the syntax is:

SmartAssembly.com [switch] [projectfile | reportfile] [options]

There are two ways to use the command line:

Integrating SmartAssembly in your build process, or making changes to multiple SmartAssembly projects.

Performing regular management tasks

Integrating SmartAssembly in your build process, or making changes to multiple SmartAssembly projects.

To use the command line to integrate SmartAssembly in your build process, or to make changes to multiple SmartAssembly projects:

Choose either to:

build an assembly based on existing SmartAssembly project settings

edit existing SmartAssembly project settings

create new SmartAssembly project settings

Set the options for your SmartAssembly project

Set the options for the assemblies in your project

1. Building, creating, or editing a SmartAssembly project

/build myproject.saproj [options]

Builds the specified project. The project must have been previously created using the SmartAssembly user interface, or by using the /create switch.

The settings in the .saproj file are overridden by the specified project options, if given, but the .saproj file itself is not altered.

See the section 'Setting project options' for more information about the available project options.

/create myproject.saproj options

Creates a new .saproj file with the specified project options

The .saproj file is saved with the new options.

The assembly itself is not built.

Must be used with the /input and /output switches.

See the section 'Setting project options' for more information about the available project options.

/edit myproject.saproj options

Replaces the settings in the specified project with the specified project options. The project must have been previously created using the SmartAssembly user interface, or by using the /create switch.

The .saproj file is saved with the new options.

The assembly itself is not built.

See the section 'Setting project options' for more information about the available project options.

2. Setting project options

You can use the following switches to control how SmartAssembly processes your project.

If you are using the /build or /editswitch, all of these switches are optional.If you do not set some of the switches, the settings in your .saproj file are used instead.

If you are using the /create switch, you must set the /input and /output options. All other switches are optional.If you do not set some of the switches, the settings in bold are used instead.

Example usage

This example:

Takes the existing SmartAssembly project file located at C:\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\Crasher\Crasher\bin\Release\Crasher.saproj and then overwrites it, replacing the following settings. The Crasher assembly is not rebuilt.

Sign the assembly with the strong name key located at "./g.snk"

Enable tamper protection

Enable the reduction of unused, allocated memory

Automatically seal classes wherever possible

Enable MSIL Disassembler protection

Enable Feature Usage Reporting, showing a consent dialog on the first run

Use Standard renaming for fields in assemblies that have fields renaming enabled

Use Unicode unprintable characters and advanced renaming algorithm in assemblies that have Types/Methods Name Mangling enabled

Enable Strings Encoding with Improved Protection, Compress and Encrypt the Strings and enable the cache

Enable Automatic Error Reporting without a dialog box, trying to continue when an error occurs

Generate PBD files for the assembly

For the purposes of Automated Error Reporting and Feature Usage Reporting, name the application 'Hello World', name the project 'testproj', set the company name to 'Red Gate Software' and set the email address to 'example@example.com'. (This is the email address that will be sent a message whenever a new error report arrives.)

Then, within the assembly called "Crasher":

Enable Pruning

Enable Merging

Embed the assembly into the main assembly (which will have been set in the Crasher.saproj file already)

Enable Types/Methods Name Mangling and Fields Name Mangling

Enable Control Flow Obfuscation at the 'Strongest' level

Enable the Dynamic References Proxy

Enable Resources Compression and Encryption

Performing regular management tasks

You can also use the following command line switches to perform management tasks related to your SmartAssembly installation.

These switches are used on their own; they are not used with the /create, /build, or /edit switches.

/compactdb

Compacts the SmartAssembly database (smartassembly\database.mdb).

Does not apply to SmartAssembly installations using SQL server.

/downloadnewreports

Download new feature usage and error reports.

/markasreleased myassembly.exe

(Deprecated)

This option was used in SmartAssembly 6.2 and earlier to preserve map files. This is no longer necessary because SmartAssembly 6.5 saves map files permanently.

When you get an encrypted report file sent to you via email, you can either double-click the file (if it has the correct .saencryptedreport extension) or run this command line option. In both cases, the report is added to the database, as if it had been downloaded from the web-service.